Well, after all the fuss (see last entry) the book went through without any revisions, so I was a very happy – and relieved! – author, and my last deadline of the year has been met … always a good feeling! I have had a very relaxed year, and have enjoyed every minute of it, but things are going to get a bit busier in 2006. I’m starting two new projects, and am committed to writing another three romances, as well as moving my life down to Wiltshire every other month. Oh, and I have already planned six holidays next year, so am not entirely sure how I’m going to fit it all in …

I did dither a bit about only doing two books next year, but was offered the chance to do a duet, two linked books, as well as a stand-alone, and as duets and trilogies can be good for sales I decided I would be a fool to turn it down. So all the holidays and sundry other projects will have to be worked around producing a book by the end of April, another by the end of October and the third by the end of November. Of course, the plan is to give myself plenty of time to write each of them, but I have no doubt at all that I will end up in my usual frenzy every time.

The duet involves linking stories set in the outback and London, so I’ll need to give that some thought over Christmas, but fortunately I have already got an idea for the stand-alone book, which I’ll tackle first. My best friend came to stay last week and we went for a walk on the Yorkshire moors. It was a bright, bracing day, and she kept coming up with ideas that I pooh-poohed, which I understand (having been so informed in no uncertain terms) is extremely rude and ungrateful of me! However, I did grudgingly accept one premise that we developed into quite an elaborate plot before veering off at a complete tangent based on a fantasy about changing our lives next year, and a pub lunch in Hetton-le-Hole provided inspiration for a final twist in the emotional conflict between hero and heroine. I will have to run it past my new editor and see what she thinks, and then should be able to put it on the back burner to simmer for a couple of months.

I’ll be back to update the writing diary in 2006, but in the meantime wish you a very happy Christmas, and the best of New Years!